Hayley will be at the centre of a storyline involving the right to die issue (Picture: ITV)EXCLUSIVE: Coronation Street boss Stuart Blackburn has moved to silence critics of the soap claiming it is chasing ratings with the tragic Hayley Cropper cancer storyline.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, while Blackburn admits ratings always will play a factor in any storyline, he explained exactly why they had to go down such an upsetting route in the popular soap.

‘Look, I’m never going to put a story on and consciously go, “You know what, I think we’re going to lose ten million viewers, so let’s go for it”,’ he told us.

‘There isn’t a single show in the world or a play or a film or a book or a great work of art that isn’t looking to expose itself to as many people as possible. But not a single decision to do with the cancer storyline was about viewers.’

Julie Hesmondhalgh and David Neilson film Hayley and Roy’s final scene together (Picture: ITV)

It was Julie’s decision to leave Coronation Street that forced bosses to scratch their heads and come up with a fitting exit storyline.

And detailing why he was given no choice but to kill Hayley, Stuart continued: ‘The first phone call I had when I took over the job was Julie saying she wanted to leave.

‘I tried desperately saying, “Why don’t you take a year off, why don’t you take two years off”, and her attitude was she didn’t want the door left open because she might take the easy route and come back.

‘What she wanted to do was carry on with her career, do more theatre. Once Julie had made that decision, I saw no alternative but to kill her.’

Saying they chose to kill Hayley in the pancreatic cancer plot because they needed to keep things as realistic and ‘normal’ as possible, he continued: ‘I didn’t believe for a single second that Roy and Hayley were a character that would argue, bicker, have affairs and split up. I wouldn’t have wanted to watch that.

‘Because the couple are so decent, honourable and normal we wanted, it sounds terrible, but we wanted the death to be as common an experience as possible.’

Stuart argues that had they given Hayley a more explosive exit or not gone into as much excruciating detail as they have done would have actually exploited the soap for ratings, rather than show an honest and truthful portrayal of a real-life issue, as they have done.

‘There’s no doubt some of the story telling has been agonising, there’s been some such painful painful moments and I do respect that.

‘It would have been easy for us to look away from some of those moments; really, really easy. I think that’s when we would have been rightly accused of exploiting the subject matter and going for viewers if we’d taken the easy option. We’ve almost taken the reverse decision in a way.’

Hayley’s tragic death will be aired in Monday night’s episodes at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV1.